Feinstein: I'm not going to play dead

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Reid will introduce gun legislation without the ban to ensure it clears a GOP filibuster

Reid says the ban's sponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, can then offer it as an amendment

Feinstein says she is disappointed, but won't back down

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that a proposed ban on semi-automatic firearms modeled after military assault weapons has no chance of passing the chamber, but he wants to ensure a vote on it will occur.

The proposal to update a similar 1994 ban that expired a decade later was one of four measures passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to the Connecticut school massacre in December.

Reid, D-Nevada, told reporters he won't keep the proposed ban in gun legislation heading to the full Senate for consideration because including it would guarantee the measure would be blocked by a Republican filibuster.

The ban proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and fiercely opposed by the National Rifle Association, Republicans and some Democrats would get fewer than 40 votes, Reid said, far below the threshold needed to defeat any filibuster or pass the Senate.

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Voices of military-style gun owners – A 1994 federal ban on certain types and configurations of guns included 19 kinds of military-style rifles and handguns. That ban expired in 2004. But the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut school has sparked new calls to ban such weapons. Click through this gallery to learn why military-style guns are important to many gun owners.

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'Some people play golf ... I shoot' – "Every month or so I take my guns out to the range and shoot," says iReporter Christopher L. Kirkman, who owns a Heckler and Koch MR556A1. "It's thrilling, exciting and a great way to vent."

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Hunting – Austin Nikel and his brother used a shotgun to shoot clay targets during this outing in Wyoming in 2009. Other enthusiasts of military style rifles often use them to hunt deer and other game. But some states have banned the AR-15 and its .223 caliber for deer hunting.

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Protection – In some home-protection situations, fans say, military-style rifles are generally more accurate than handguns. Rifles are generally easier to learn how to shoot, say military-style rifle owners.

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Collectable – Military style rifles are important to many gun collectors. iReporter Nathan Lee's firearms include a black AR-15 military-style rifle -- seen here second from the top. IReporter Hrothgar-01 said AR-15s are as much a part of the nation's history "as the muskets carried by pioneers" and "the rifles toted by doughboys in the trenches."

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'Fascinated by the Second Amendment' – Gun rights activists celebrate a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether the Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms" is fundamentally an individual or collective right. IReporter INGunowner's reasons for owning his AK-47 include his "fascination with the Second Amendment, which I view as a backstop protector of freedom."

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Instead, Feinstein could propose the ban as an amendment to the gun legislation on the Senate floor in order to get a vote on it, Reid said.

President Barack Obama supports Feinstein's proposal.

The other proposals passed by the Judiciary Committee would expand background checks on gun sales, toughen laws against firearms trafficking and straw purchases, and design steps to improve school safety.

Reid's move doesn't come as a surprise as he has signaled for weeks he would only allow a vote on an assault weapons amendment.

"I have to get something on the floor," Reid said.

Feinstein said she was "disappointed" with Reid's decision, which he told her about in a private meeting on Monday.

Gun rights and gun control advocates largely agree there should be restrictions on mentally ill people obtaining firearms. The case of Myron Fletcher illustrates how difficult it is to put that into practice.

Six months after a gunman burst into a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school and slaughtered 20 children and killed six others, promises of stricter national gun control laws remain largely unfulfilled.

Next time there's a mass shooting, don't jump to blame the National Rifle Association and lax gun laws. Look first at the shooter and the mental health services he did or didn't get, and the commitment laws in the state where the shooting took place.

The sign at the door of the Colt factory displays a gun with a slash through it: "No loaded or unauthorized firearms beyond this point." Understandable for workers at a plant, but also a bit ironic, considering one of the largest arsenals in America lies just beyond.

Morgan Spurlock's "Inside Man" gives CNN viewers an inside and in-depth look at the issue of firearms -- as viewed from behind the counter of a gun store. Here are five things to know about the debate.

As Congress grapples with major gun control legislation proposals, brothers and sisters, mothers, fathers and children write about the people they loved and lost to gun violence and how it changed their lives.